News

Although it seems that my ESA will not be incorporated in my UC, but rather separately as New Style ESA. All very odd. It seems like my wife will be potentially getting her own NS-ESA, rather than being part of my award as before with ESA. She was immediately asked to a job centre interview re looking for work, which she’s had. She’s to have a work health assessment. I wasn’t troubled by them at first but have been now. I had been working part-time Permitted Work. Now it seems my part-time work might not be enough. A phone interview is pending. We’re feeling pressured that we might be pushed into working more than we’re able. Maybe I’ll have to quit my work altogether. All is to play for at the moment.

Does anyone has a copy/download of the migration IC form?

All the best wishes to all.

Got till 4th Jan ( 3 months) to claim or stop receiving financial support.

I'm on housing benefit and income based ESA in support group.

I live in Reading.

Not looking forward to this as the comments here aren't painting a pretty picture.

Good luck to everyone.

Migrated fron IS to UC . self and partner on PIP plus 2 x CA.   Given an award of £0 . I knew from using benefits calcultors (turn2us and entitledto) that this was incorrect. Phoned up and told I needed to communicate via the online journal. I stated on the journal that they had failed to include the Carers element (even though they had deducted Carers Allowance) . I specifically stated how much we should be getting paid ,including the transtional protection amount. They responded within a few hours and ammended the payment to the figures i gave them.

Did they orginally make an honest error in their calculation or where they playing dumb about the Carers element and not including it unless you questioned it ?

My advice would be to make sure you know exactly what you should be getting before applying(or during) using Benefits Calcultors , info on here (benefits and work) and any other accurate information online. If the amount they give you doesn't match then pursue it. If it becomes too much contact CAB for help and support through the process.

Best wishes.

Hi

It has been awful. Really awful. There is no training or support for ppl on the support group. They put me straight into the intensive work search group and terrified me in the process.  There is no advocate or help to ease through the extensive questions on the phone and I was forced to speak in the phone

 Even though ESA are fully aware of my situation. False information regarding benefits would roll on for an extra 2 weeks was given and the advance payment àka loan was the only option given in random to support for new D my three children all of us have additional needs....

I'm still not there yet. I have another three weeks of food banks and watching every penny of the  DLA that my child gets

If you haven't been through this yet... Save money. And be careful. Get paid up what you can before hand, cue water phone freeze food... Call bills and explain situation. Octopus energy are amazing and have been so kind and helpful

Read up on your rights. The UC man didn't seem to know anything about managed migration when in support group.

Good luck x

Amazing timing by dwp again - let the disabled go without cash for 5 weeks , in winter , leading up to Xmas 🙃

My husband gets Cont based esa and is in the support group, and I receive IS.  The CAB helpline is fantastic, they were very thorough explained everything very clearly, that his support group status should migrate with him and there will  be no expectation to attend interviews or medicals.  They were able to give us a calculation for how much we could expect.  

Then you have to open an online account, not so straightforward (I'm pretty tech savvy but I didn't find it easy so feel incredibly sorry for those who struggle with technology).  Beware of them getting things wrong which can trigger incredible anxiety...so my husband was told immediately that he needed to attend an interview, queue huge panic!  I filled in the journal on his behalf to explain that he would likely be too ill to attend at which point they responded saying 'oops sorry you are in the support group so you do not have to attend'!  Then he got a message saying he had to provide a fitnote and may have to attend an assessment!  Again, when I queried it they said 'oops no he doesn't need to'!  This causes me massive stress dealing with it on his behalf, as I have adhd and anxiety and depression myself, but it makes my husband ill, it's like being on a yo-yo!!!  Not actually had any money yet, and there was also a massive mix up about my carers allowance, despite me registering a change twice via the internet and then once over the telephone. 

My experience is that because it is all internet based it makes it so much more open to errors, someone ticks the wrong box or you don't answer a question in quite the right way and suddenly you are being asked to attend interviews / assessments that maybe you don't eventually need to but it still triggers massive anxiety/stress.  Not particularly impressed so far but it is the way everything is going now...and will all be ok until there is a massive power/or internet outage and then everything will grind to a halt. 

Best wishes to everyone dealing with the horrible benefit system :-)

One big thing I would stress to anyone being asked to migrate and on legacy benefits, PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE AN UP TO DATE CLAIM WITH ESA BEFORE YOU MIGRATE.

I have had to contact ESA on several occasions to have a claim for Severe Disability payment reinstated on the claimants ESA claim.  UC do not pay another benefit in place of this and had we not had this reinstated the claimant would have lost the right to claim that element once she migrated.  I was also informed that had we migrated whilst the decision was being made with ESA, it would cease on the date of migration.  So it is essential to have any decision with ESA completed before you migrate as there is no way of picking this up at a later date.

I did find it to be very baffling how when I spoke to ESA about UC they had no idea about how UC works and when I spoke to UC about ESA, they also had no idea about ESA.  Neither benefit would discuss what the other benefit would do in certain circumstances.  For claimants trying to get all of their "ducks in a row" before migration occurs, this lack of information is not very helpful.  

In one call to ESA I had to inform them that UC do not pay an equivalent payment for severe disability.  I was insistently told by ESA that all of the claimant's benefits would remain the same and that she wouldn't lose anything.   It took a lot of effort on my part to get the lady to understand that only the benefits being received from ESA on the date of migration would be paid by UC on legacy benefits.  Had I taken her information as being correct, we would have migrated and lost the right to make a claim for severe disability.  

I strongly believe this approach of being unhelpful and ill informed is leaving many claimants migrating without sufficient information to hand, which then could mean losing an element of their claims. 

The waiting time of over 1 hour for ESA to accept a call is not something many claimants with mental health can manage.  

Overall, it is not surprising that so many individuals are not reapplying for their benefits or chasing up matters with their benefits as it all becomes too much for them to deal with.

It would be very helpful for claimants to have a point of contact to receive the correct information on their benefits, ongoing and future claims.  

I timed the application to ensure I got my last payments to tide me over until the UC payment comes through, as soon as you apply they cut everything off and I did not want to take thier advance because it would leave me worse off in the long term. Everything is done on line with a tick in a box so nowhere to explain any mitigating circumstances - the whole migration thing is a con as if you are already on legacy benefits as they call it, then they already have all the information on you - so why they cannot just move you over I have no idea. They are already messing up the transition - I received a notice from them that the council informed them I have a 1 bed place when it is a 2 - called council they had no idea why they had this information as it is clear on record I live in a 2 bed. Then despite them already having all my medical information via PIP awards I now have to produce a "fit" note - what the hell for I do not understand. Then I get another notice the details between them and the council are still wrong and I am supposed to fix it - do I need this stress umm no I don't think so! How am I supposed to fix the property details when the council are saying they sent the right information and the UC say they did not???? from reading other posts on here this is likely to just get worse - I'm now dreading the mess up they are going to make over the council tax from what I have read here and being dragged into a job centre to be told by some 12 year old what I should and should not be doing - being half blind from cancer I can not wait to see what job they expect me to take and while I am out working do they expect me to chain my son to a radiator for his safety??? This whole system makes me so angry, they waste billions every year the cost of MPs salaries and expenses are eye watering alone - who wouldn't like free 2grand tickets to Taylor Swift - but no those of us on the very bottom of the ladder are the ones causing the financial issues - when the billionaires and millionaires are using every loophole they can - it is the disabled community that is bringing the country to financial collapse - one thing I will be doing is looking up the Legislation 19 that was mentioned in a comment to use to get them to leave me the hell alone. The whole system is a farce there are days where I wonder if it is worth waking up anymore.